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| AP Photo - Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi |
However, this proposal won't be accepted easily. Congress has had a long history of opposing legislation limiting gun rights, citing the second amendment. Especially now, as the congress is majority Republican and with the NRA's intense lobbying presence in Congress, it'll be hard for the committee to be even approved, let alone draft and pass bills. Following the shootings and seeing the statistics above, do you think Congress's adamant refusal of limiting gun rights is still legitimate or should more action be taken to prevent violence?
Furthermore, committees have had a little bit of a bad reputation recently, as Democrats have accused Republicans of abusing the creation of committees for their own purposes. For example, there is currently a select committee whose purpose is investigating Hilary Clinton's handling of the Benghazi attacks while she was Secretary of State, which Democrats claim has the sole purpose of defaming Clinton during the presidential election. Furthermore, another committee has been formed recently investigating Planned Parenthood, a largely democratic-backed idea, and the allegations that Planned Parenthood is selling body parts of aborted fetuses. As a result, the establishment of committees has been generally frowned upon by the Democrats.
As a whole, what do you think? I know gun control is a very heavily debated topic, so I'd like to narrow the debate down to this: Should a bipartisan committee be established to address the gun violence? Would it be effective or worthwhile?
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3 comments:
Accidentally screwed up one of the posts. Oops.
Anyways, while a committee doesn't seem like a bad idea, it really is doubtful that much will change. Even after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords survived a shot to the head, Congress still didn't do anything. The 2013 piece of legislation that pushed for background checks at gun shows was shot down, even though the majority of the public supported it. Why? Lobbying. Perhaps this is the crux of the issue (not on gun control, but why nothing has been done).
I think a committee would be the best way to try and deal with the situation on gun control. Gun laws would have a difficult time passing at the moment because the Republicans hold the majority of the santa and house of reps. with 54 seats in senate and 247 seats in the house (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/114th_United_States_Congress) But obviously everyone wants gun violence to end, so by having a bipartisan committee where you get input from both parties, I think there might be a greater chance of gun laws passing into action.
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